Durham police to use AI for custody decisions

Police in Durham are preparing to use artificial intelligence (AI) to assist officers deciding whether or not to send a suspect into custody, reports the BBC.

A system has been developed to categorise suspects into "low, medium or high risk of offending". It has been developed using five years of criminal history data.

Sheena Urwin, head of criminal justice at Durham Constabulary, told the BBC: "I imagine in the next two to three months we'll probably make it a live tool to support officers' decision making".

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Police trialled the harm assessment risk tool (Hart) for a two-year period starting in 2013, says Alphr, during which researchers discovered it had a 98 per cent success rate in identifying low-risk subjects and an 89 per cent rate for high-risk subjects.

It's decisions are based on factors such as "seriousness of alleged crime and previous criminal history".

Hart "leans towards a cautious outlook", says Alphr, so it is more likely to label a suspect as medium or high-risk, reducing the danger of "releasing dangerous criminals".

Such technology is becoming a vital tool in helping police in their investigations.

Last month, a man was charged with murdering his wife after investigators were able to work out her final moments using her Fitbit health tracker.

Information on how many steps the victim had walked indicated she had been active for an hour after the time her husband said she died, says The Guardian.

It also suggested she had "traveled more than 1,200ft after arriving home", adds the paper, while her husband said she was murdered by intruders immediately after arriving.